A known impacting mechanism has a housing. An actuator plunger is mounted within the housing for axial movement with respect to the housing. A power plunger is mounted within the housing in parallel relation to the actuator plunger for movement with respect to the housing and the actuator plunger. The impacting mechanism has a latch which is fixed to the actuator plunger. With the actuator plunger in contact with a surface which is to be impacted the housing is moved toward the surface causing the latch to engage a fixed collar on the power plunger to releasably couple the actuator plunger to the power plunger. A problem associated with such impacting mechanism is that with the latch and collar both being fixed to respective plungers engagement forces are not cushioned when the plungers are coupled together. The engagement forces deform the latch and the collar.
The present invention is directed to overcome the problem as set forth above.